Fall Photo Sharing Party

Thursday, September 20, 2018

It’s party season again at Anchorage Audubon, and we’d love it if you’d join us Thursday, Sept. 20, for Anchorage Audubon’s Annual End-Of-Summer Photo Sharing Party. Bring your favorite photos of your summer adventures and make the rest of us totally jealous.

Adventures in the Amazon – Andrew Fisher

at the BP Energy Center – 7:00 PM

Come join Andrew Fisher on October 18 for an adventure into the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. He will take you on photographic boat trip into the world renowned Manu National Park to explore the wildlife along the Madre de Dios River. From the crazy-looking “punk chicken” (aka hoatzin) to a family of giant river otters, this evening will peak your curiosity into wildlife which inhabit the “lungs-of-the-earth”.

Birding Hyder, in a Cadillac – W. Keys

at the BP Energy Center – 7:00 PM

It was the weirdest birding road trip ever. Anchorage Audubon’s Commander-In-Chief, W. Keys, tagged along with 3 extremely hot shot birders for a week-long birding extravaganza in Hyder, Alaska. The town at the absolute end of the road had never seen a carload of birders arrive in a sparkling white Cadillac Sedan DeVille.

The Anchorage Big Day Wrap-up!

another Audubon Cutthroat Competition!!

It was not only a Big Day, it was a Ginormous Day!

Last weekend eight teams and twenty intrepid birders faced off in a contest to see which team could find the most bird species within the Municipality of Anchorage on approximately the First Day Of Spring. And nothing went as expected!

There was a team comprised of birders from Spenard AND from Muldoon, which proves that people from widely different cultures can, in fact, get along with each other. There was an Immigrant Team where local birders welcomed a visitor from Colorado to join them, and they weren’t the least bit afraid that he would steal their jobs.

All together the teams tallied FORTY-SIX different species, but the winners found only 31 of them. This was an all-time low percentage of 67% of the total species seen by the winning team.

Hi Society!

2017 Christmas Bird Count Preliminary Results

We have the preliminary results for the 2017 Anchorage Christmas Bird Count which was held on Saturday, December 16, 2017. It’s long, but we’ll give it a try.

What a Christmas Bird Count! The preliminary results are in, but please be advised that these results will change as the final data is tabulated, and our view of the results is based on very early and largely un-analyzed data. But what a day!

This year, counters found FIFTY-FIVE SPECIES, which exceeds the previous all time high of 52 species set in 1984 by THREE SPECIES. Holy Smokes!

The total number of birds seen was 10,627 which is above the mean number of 8,155, but is far below the record number of 30,606. The record number is of course dependent on highly inruptive species such as Bohemian Waxwings and Common Redpolls which have reached as many as 22,000 and 8,000 birds respectively in certain years.

Birds at an almost all-time high were Gray Jays, Steller’s Jays, Rock Ptarmigan, and unfortunately European Starlings.

Species with a below average showing included Common Goldeneyes, Dark-eyed Juncos, Pine Grosbeaks, and Common Redpolls. Species looking way below average were Bohemian Waxwings, White-winged Crossbills, and Pine Siskins.

Our 55 species seen compares to a mean number of 33, and as usual, there were a number of species represented by only ONE single sighting of one individual. This is fairly usual, but the number was high this year with 17 of 51 species being represented by only one individual. Those single sightings were: Sharp-shinned Hawk, Merlin, Gyrfalcon, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Wilson’s Snipe, Great Horned Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Hermit Thrush, Varied Thrush, Orange-crowned Warbler, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Snow Bunting, Pacific Wren, Short-eared Owl, and Hoary Redpoll.

New birds to the count were the Hermit Thrush, Northern Shoveler, and the Sharp-tailed Grouse. The Sharp-tailed Grouse was the highlight of the day since it was also the FIRST RECORD of that species ever seen in Anchorage.

Here’s how that happened:

Visiting birder Michael Woodruff and his wife were walking the Coastal Trail between Elderberry Park and Westchester Lagoon. The Grouse walked across the trail in front of them. They thought it was unusual, but because they are not from Anchorage, they did not realize what a stunning bird they had stumbled upon.

They called Area 2 Leader Andrew Fisher who called W. Keys. Between them, they realized that there was a very good reason that they were shouting to each other on the phone. Word went back to Michael who re-found the bird, and word went out to birders across town. The stampede to the spot was on.

From her deck, the lady whose yard it had chosen said, “It’s been here for about 3 weeks. I’ve been feeding it and thought it was some kind of ptarmigan.”

It was a fabulous day, and the Tally Party and Chili Feed was a stellar event as well. Ginormous thanks go to everyone who participated in the Count, to everyone who brought dishes to the Potluck, to the Area Leaders for coordinating their teams, to Keith Confer who worked tirelessly to make the Tally Spreadsheet clear and concise, and to Louann Feldmann who once again organized the entire city-wide Christmas Bird Count effort. She is nothing less than a Citizen Science Goddess!

And finally, we can’t heap enough praise on visiting birder Michael Woodruff and his wife who not only found the Sharp-tailed Grouse, but also turned up the single Song Sparrow and the single Snow Bunting in the same immediate area!

Data from the Anchorage Count follows below, and is sorted according to the number of each species seen. The Tally Party and Chili Feed was a fabulous get-together, and we’d like to thank the First Congregational Church, Lynn Barber, and Louann Feldmann for making the evening possible.

Also worthy of our highest praise are Area Leaders Thede Tobish, Andrew Fisher, Daria Carle, Tom Evans, Dick Prentki, and Pat Pourchot; Chief Coordinator Louann Feldmann; and all of the many, many counters and feeder watchers who provided the data for this year’s count.

The total species seen are listed here from most prevalent to least prevalent. This year’s total exceeds the all-time record of 52 set in 1984 by THREE SPECIES!

Black-capped Chickadee

1874

Mallard

1320

Rock Pigeon

1209

Bohemian Waxwing

1166

Common Redpoll

799

Black-billed Magpie

708

Common Raven

652

European Starling

601

Red-breasted Nuthatch

512

Pine Grosbeak

482

American Robin

406

Boreal Chickadee

337

Steller’s Jay

109

Downy Woodpecker

55

Redpoll Species

53

American Dipper

48

Golden-crowned Kinglet

38

White-winged Crossbill

28

Gray Jay

25

Hairy Woodpecker

23

Gray-crowned Rosy Finch

20

Dark-eyed Junco

19

Bald Eagle

16

Willow Ptarmigan

16

Pine Siskin

14

Common Goldeneye

13

Common Merganser

13

Brown Creeper

8

Northern Shrike

7

Northern Goshawk

6

Rock Ptarmigan

5

Townsend’s Solitaire

3

Northern Shoveler

2

Harlequin Duck

2

Bufflehead

2

Spruce Grouse

2

Am. Three-toed Woodpecker

2

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

2

Green-winged Teal

1

Sharp-shinned Hawk

1

Merlin

1

Gyrfalcon

1

Sharp-tailed Grouse

1

Wilson’s Snipe

1

Short-eared Owl

1

Great Horned Owl

1

Northern Saw-whet Owl

1

Belted Kingfisher

1

Pacific Wren

1

Hermit Thrush

1

Varied Thrush

1

Orange-crowned Warbler

1

White-crowned Sparrow

1

Song Sparrow

1

Snow Bunting

1

Hoary Redpoll

1

Total # of Species

55

Total # of Individuals Birds

10627

As seen during the Tally Party, graphs have been made of each species on a per year basis since the count began. These graphs are available for viewing via the following link:

Additional Anchorage rarities that have occurred in the recent past and other more "historical" Anchorage rarities can be found under the "Anchorage Rarities" section of the "Birding Anchorage" section of the menus.